Chapter 744
In the Holy Federation, troops were dispatched to bring back Saint Anna.
And though it was unclear whether it was someone’s intent, coincidentally, this information also leaked to the Dark Alliance.
Necromancers and priests from both factions, having received the information, rushed into the orphanage one after another, bringing the situation to the brink of explosion, but fortunately, all-out war did not break out.
It was because Richard and Anna, both of commander rank, prevented the battle, and since the orphanage was far from the Neutral Zone area where the Sealed Letter was located, the dispatched officers judged that there was no need to fight unnecessarily.
The spirits of darkness vanished as if they had been lies, and Richard and Anna returned to their respective camps. The Holy Federation, a little more concerned with its image among the townsfolk, decided to protect the children of the orphanage.
And so, it seemed the situation had come to an end.
—Attack! Attack!
—Bring down the Holy Federation fortress!
From the very next day, the war on the Bahila front resumed.
With the situation dragging on, the Dark Alliance leadership wanted results, and they seemed to aim at securing excavation sites of the Sealed Letter, even if only a little more than the Holy Federation.
But.
—Commander Yona! A minute crack has appeared in the enemy camp’s barrier! If we move the Legion to break through, there is a chance......!
—Enough.
From that day on, Richard began behaving like a man whose soul had left him.
Even at the battlefield, he would sit on a rock, staring blankly at the sky or leaving his mouth half open.
—We cannot break through. Strike lightly, then retreat.
Richard would often halt offensives, saying there was no need to press wasteful attacks. Dissatisfaction piled up among the hardline Ancient Undead and his subordinates, but Richard ignored them.
—Saint! We have intelligence that wounded necromancers are hiding beneath the city! Please grant permission for bombardment!
—I cannot permit it.
Anna was the same.
—Holy bombardment would only increase the harm upon innocent civilians.
—Then at least send an infiltration squad to the western front......!
—Our losses would be too great, order them to retreat.
Like Richard, she too had lost the will to fight. Finally, Israfil could not hold back and spoke.
—Sister Anna! We must push forward when we have the advantage! We need to expand our excavation zone for the Sealed Letter, even a little!
At those words, Anna gave a sorrowful smile.
—The defenses of the Dark Alliance are thorough. Even if we succeed in breaking through, I fear to think of how much blood will be spilled.
—If we fear sacrifice, we cannot win the war! You know this! What if a Sealed Letter is discovered in their Bahila sector, then what? Surely Her Holiness the Pontifex will hold us guilty.......
—That sector may yield a Sealed Letter.
Anna replied in a calm tone.
—But how many lives have already been lost for such a reason? We have not even finished excavations in the areas we currently hold, so how much more blood must be shed for a mere supposition that a Sealed Letter ‘may’ appear?
—Sister Anna!
—Cease attacks wherever possible, and let us devote our strength to excavation while protecting the territory we have secured.
Anna rejected every proposal for turning to offense, including Israfil’s, and sat down on her chair, staring outside the tent.
Even if she could not see beyond, she simply gazed blankly in some direction.
Israfil bit her lips hard.
‘......Sister Anna.’
Having watched Anna for a long time, Israfil could tell.
Anna was in pain.
Even if asked what was wrong, she would smile brightly, insisting she was the same as ever, but her smile carried no life. She refused to eat, and like one dying, she simply sat, absent-minded.
Ever since that ‘orphanage incident’.
‘......This is not my fault.’
As Rena had pointed out, suppose this whole situation arose because she reported Anna’s deviation to headquarters and the information leaked.
But wasn’t that rather a good thing?
The man Anna had been meeting at the orphanage was a necromancer, and not just any, but the notorious Legion Commander Yona. Before Anna could be deceived and something more terrible happened, she herself had saved her.
Indeed, only she could protect Sister Anna.
‘......Then why.’
Why did Anna smile like a withered flower, while she herself could not even meet Anna’s eyes out of guilt?
Surely not.
No, it could not be.
Israfil shook her head, scattering the blasphemous delusion from her mind, then walked away to devise a more effective, perfect battle plan, one Anna would have no choice but to approve.
* * *
Four days later.
Late dawn.
Simon and Lete slipped away from their respective formations and met again in the ruins.
“I am glad you are safe, Lete.”
Simon sighed in relief as he spoke. The Lete he met again looked a little gaunt.
“Well, there was some questioning, but Teacher Anna protected me thoroughly, so I could stay.”
“Mm.”
After the orphanage incident, the Holy Federation imposed a strict ban on leaving one’s post.
During the hundred-year war, with the front dragging on, especially in the Neutral Zone where excavation of the Sealed Letter was underway, soldiers had often sneaked out, but this incident shut down all such ways.
Lete had risked her life to come here.
“And on the Dark Alliance side?”
“They received the same order, ban on leaving duty.”
“The situation is tangled. I knew things were going too smoothly.”
According to what they had heard directly from Richard and Anna back in Leshill before coming to the past, the two had met about six times before finally learning each other’s true identities.
That revelation came during an outing for a date in the suburbs, when they happened to provoke a nearby monster nest.
It had been an intense battle, and fighting with mana, the two of them had no choice but to unleash Darkness and Holiness to slay the monsters.
When they discovered each other to be necromancer and priest, they argued briefly over the deception, but soon, with more monsters swarming, they had no choice but to form a temporary alliance.
Countless monsters. And a necromancer and a priest standing back-to-back.
In the process of resisting a common foe, their anger and misunderstanding slowly washed away, and subtle feelings began to sprout.
Of course, when the battle was over, they reaffirmed that they were enemies and swore no mercy if they met on the battlefield, then parted ways, but the fact that they had chosen conversation over decisive combat was proof of a bond already forming.
And yet.
“In our timeline, the two of them parted without going through those six encounters.”
Lete thumped the ground with her fist.
“Not six, but only one date after their first meeting! And even that was interrupted by strange spirits!”
Simon let out a sigh.
“I only hope that one date was as impressive as all six put together.”
“More than anything, the fact that they never went through the monster nest incident is crucial.”
Simon agreed with Lete’s words.
In the monster nest incident, before they even had time to be shocked by the revelation that the other was an enemy, a fierce battle had already begun, and through fighting against a common foe, they had built a bond.
But this time, that process was skipped.
They parted ways while still in shock from learning each other’s identities. They had not confirmed their feelings, nor had they built any bond. Soldiers from both factions, teleported in, had even caught them on the spot.
The two fell into thought. Then suddenly, with a resolute expression, Lete spoke.
“The ones who ruined the situation first were the Executioners! Since it’s come to this, let’s wreck things on our side too!”
“...And what are you planning?”
“Somehow, we drag the two of them, even by force, near that monster nest! What if we provoke the monsters there and flee? The two will have to fight, and things might flow similar to the past we know!”
“That, I thought the exact same thing, so I checked if there was still a monster nest nearby.”
Simon shook his head slowly.
“But the Dark Alliance had already judged them as potential risks and wiped out all nests.”
“Damn, the Executioners must have acted first.”
The ‘Executioners’ from the future was not only thorough enough to eliminate even small variables, but also seemed to know Richard and Anna very well.
What was known about them was only that they wielded that alien power called the ‘Spirits of Darkness’. And that they had intelligence networks in both the Dark Alliance and the Holy Federation, and could exert some degree of influence.
“We’ve done what we can.”
Simon gave his conclusion.
“Forcing the two to meet again now lacks realism, and even if they did, I think it would only confuse their feelings further. For now, let’s just watch a little longer.”
Simon glanced at the hourglass artifact hanging from his neck. More than half the sand had already flowed down.
“Most likely, we’ll remain in the past until the ‘Legion’s Betrayal incident’. That’s the most crucial chance.”
“You, you’re strangely calm.”
Lete folded her arms.
“The Witch of Death said it herself, if the two of them don’t end up together, when you return your existence might disappear. Have you already forgotten?”
“Of course I remember.”
Simon lifted his head.
“But I trust their hearts.”
Even if things had gone a little awry, he believed that those two, in the end, would find their way to each other.
Simon carried that vague kind of belief.
“......A destined love, huh.”
Lete rested her chin on her hand.
“I really wish such an unrealistic story would come true.”
* * *
After the orphanage incident, Richard lived like a broken man.
Nothing satisfied him, nothing filled the emptiness. When others asked why his face looked that way, Richard could not answer. He himself didn’t know the reason.
It was just a shitty mood.
That was all.
Then one time, his fellow cadets called him out, telling him to come for a drink that night. Conveniently, that nagging ‘watchdog’ was nowhere in sight.
Even though an order banning desertion had been issued, Richard wasn’t the type to care. He grabbed his coat and followed his comrades.
They went to the tavern they always visited.
As always, he declared that he would pay the bill, rang the golden bell, and snatched the bards’ instruments to play.
But he wasn’t happy. The people’s cheers, the tipsy haze of alcohol, the women who approached to seduce him.
Everything was empty.
Even as he sat on the sofa, holding women under each arm, playing the king, there was no thrill.
No.
It only made him feel dirtier.
Crash!
Richard slammed the bottle to the floor with all his might.
The bottle shattered, shards flying, women screamed. The surroundings grew chaotic, and people drunk on the party atmosphere looked at Richard in shock.
Richard pulled out a wad of money and tossed it to the tavern owner, then stepped outside.
He thought he would never return there again.
He went back to the army barracks.
He never imagined he would return in the middle of a party. Throwing off his coat, he spread out the books piled in the corner.
—[Secrets of the Sealed Letter.]
—[Principles and History of the Sealed Letter.]
And he pulled out a strategy chalkboard, grabbed a piece of chalk, and scrawled with force.
<How to Stop the War>
Tak—
He pressed the chalk hard as he wrote, then stared blankly at the board.
“Fuck.”
Running a hand through his hair, he suddenly threw the chalk away.
Crack!
The chalk hit the barracks pillar and snapped in two. Richard grabbed a bottle of rum, drank deeply, then seized a quill and began scribbling furiously on a report.
<Report: Reasons this war must end.>
Scratch, scratch.
Raking his long hair, drunk, he wrote like a madman.
Why am I like this.
Why the hell am I like this.
It’s not fun when I drink, my heart doesn’t leap even when I look at women.
End the war?
Why me, suddenly?
“F**k.”
Richard let his arm hang limp.
—Was it you, Yona?
Richard shot up from his seat, flipping the desk and kicking the chair away.
He stared at the broken pieces and the papers flying through the air.
His stomach turned, his mood was still rotten.
“Why the f**k isn’t that watchdog here yet!”
He shouted.
“To stop me from going drinking again! Huh? Shouldn’t he be watching properly? Shit!”
Then, unable to hold himself together, he slumped back into his chair.
He felt like garbage.
* * *
Late dawn.
An empty chapel within the Holy Federation, with not a soul in sight.
“......”
There, Anna was kneeling in prayer.
In the moonlight shining through the window, she traced the verses of scripture.
But no matter which verse she recited.
No matter what prayer she spoke.
—Today isn’t everything. Keep challenging like that.
That man’s face flickered in her mind.
Even if she shook her head violently and prayed again, it was the same.
Her heart ached. So bitter and unbearable that tears welled up. She wiped her eyes with her sleeve and pressed her hands together once more.
“What are you doing here, Teacher?”
At the voice from behind, Anna slowly turned her head.
Lete was approaching, wearing a gentle smile.
“If you keep praying until dawn like that, you’ll ruin your health.”
“......Rena.”
Anna lowered her head deeply.
—Even small, trivial things, little by little. Show yourself as the master of your own life.
Having hardened her resolve, she lifted her face with determination and met Lete’s eyes.
“There’s something, I want to ask you.”
No comments yet. Be the first to leave a review!